September 12, 2004, Nashville, Tennessee--Thunderstorms plagued Middle Tennessee Sunday afternoon and evening, with heavy rains, lightning and thunder rumbling just west of the Nashville Metro area. But at the Music City Motorplex, thunder and lightning of a different sort reigned as history was made and records fell with the long-awaited arrival of the fabled United States Auto Club Sprint Cars.

The USAC "Thunder & Lightning" division, legendary as a stepping stone to the Indianapolis 500, brought the likes of former and current USAC champs Tracy Hines, Dave Steele, Tony Elliott, and Jay Drake to the Motorplex's storied .596 mile high banks, along with twenty-one of USAC's finest, including former Western States champ Bud Kaeding, "Chili Bowl" winner Johnny Heydenreich and recent winner Cory Kruseman, who, with Drake and Steele, competed in cars owned by no less than Indy Racing League and NASCAR Nextel Cup champ Tony Stewart. Drivers from nine different states and one from Canada were entered, with New Castle, Indiana's Tracy Hines setting fast time in practice with a new absolute track record of 17.192 seconds, at a speed of 124.802 mph, eclipsing the old record of Southern All Stars Late Model driver Jason Hogan by nearly seven tenths of a second. With qualifying a no-go due to the earlier rains, Hines' time stood for the pole, with current USAC Midget Series point leader Bobby East, Dave Steele, Eric Gordon, and Jay Drake rounding out the top five.

FIRST 77

On the green Bobby East quickly broke to the lead, with Tracy Hines slotting into second and Eric Gordon third. Running laps in the 120-mile per hour range, East maintained the point through the first caution on lap 13, for mechanical problems on the number 21 of Cory Kruseman. The green flew again on lap 19, but that was short-lived, as series points leader Jay Drake came to grief on the back stretch, rolling his number 20's sprinter and again bringing out the caution. Drake--in his 150th career USAC feature start--emerged unhurt from the mishap, but with teammate Kruseman already pit bound, Drake's misfortune continued an already bad night for Tony Stewart Racing.

The green came back out on lap 29, and again East bolted to the front, still chased by Hines, Gordon, Dave Steele (in the third Tony Stewart entry) and Michael Lewis. As the race crossed the halfway point the top four were less than a second apart, with tight racing from fifth on back as the leaders encountered lapped traffic that was itself racing two and often three abreast. Aaron Pierce and Bobby Santos were giving Lewis fits, with Santos eventually emerging with the fifth spot on lap 49. East, meanwhile, was taking advantage of the traffic and some blistering laps to spread out his advantage over Hines until the caution reappeared on lap 60 when Winton, California's Gordon Rogers rolled to a stop along the outside wall on the backstretch.

This set up an eleven lap sprint to the finish, but with a couple of lapped cars between himself and Hines, East was able to pull away for the win, followed by Hines and Eric Gordon. As the race heated up behind the top three, Bobby Santos made a stunning power move in traffic on lap 70 to snatch fourth from Steele.

SECOND 77

Jay Drake's Tony Stewart Racing crew was unable to complete repairs to his ride, but twenty-four cars still answered the call for the second 77-lap event. Teammate Cory Kruseman would lead the field, and first race winner Bobby East would start last. With a $25,000 bonus up for grabs for anyone winning both ends of the event, all eyes were on East as the green flew.

Outside pole sitter Brad Armstrong took the lead over Kruseman and Josh Ford at the start, but no one seemed to notice, as East lived up to his first 77 promise and leaped past 5 cars on the first lap. When the caution flew on lap four, East was already up to 16th. On the ensuing green, East again was on the move, and when Eric Gordon looped his machine on the frontstretch on lap 12, East was up to 13th. Armstrong still led over Kruseman and Ford, with Tom Hessert and Levi Jones rounding out the top five. Green flag racing resumed on lap 17, and again, East was the focus of attention. On lap 20 he moved into 12th; on lap 21 he was into 11th. Meanwhile, Franklin, Massachusetts' Bobby Santos again was doing some incredible three-wide racing and had moved into the top five, while East muscled his way into the top ten, bumping wheels with Josh Ford on lap 30 just before teammates Aaron Pierce and Johnny Heydenreich came together coming off the second turn while battling for fourth, bringing out the second caution. This saw East moving up to sixth, behind Armstrong, Hessert, Santos, Kruseman, and Michael Lewis. The green reappeared on lap 36, with Santos making a bid for second and East and Dave Steele trying to force their way to the front. Santos finally took second on lap 40, and began to reel in Armstrong. East was now into the top five.

Santos continued to impress, taking the high groove to move into the lead on lap 45, and Steele and East both managed to get past Tom Hessert to move into third and fourth as the caution came back out on lap 48 for debris in the fourth turn. The green would come back out on the 53rd lap, with Steele powering past Armstrong, East following suit almost immediately. Steele quickly closed on Santos, harrying him high and low repeatedly with East lurking in third. Santos and Steele slowly began to pull away from East. With five to go, Santos began to move out from Steele, and appeared to have sealed the win with some final daring moves in traffic...then, a caution. Aaron Pierce again was sideways at the bottom of the second turn, his second mishap of the event.

It was a whole new race. USAC rules dictate that the final two laps of any race must be run under the green, so scoring was frozen with 73 laps in the book. The running order at this point then was Santos, Steele, East, Armstrong, and Bud Kaeding. The pivotal moment of the event came when the white flag came out--Dave Steele got a good run through turn one and two, pulling underneath Santos, then the two made contact, with Santos looping off the exit of the second turn, ending a superb run at what would've been his first career USAC win. This would lead to a one-lap shootout between Steele and East, but East would be denied his double, Steele pulling away for his third USAC Sprint win of the season by a half-dozen car lengths and salvaging some pride for Tony Stewart Racing. Early leader Brad Armstrong held on for third, with Bud Kaeding in fourth and Jason McCord fifth.



USAC VALVOLINE NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 12, 2004

Nashville, Tennessee – Music City Motorplex – “Music City 150”

QUALIFICATIONS: 

Pos Driver             Car     Team         Time

 1. Tracy Hines,        69,   Dynamics       17.192 
 2. Bobby East,          5,   Klatt          17.218 
 3. Dave Steele,        20,   Stewart        17.428 
 4. Eric Gordon,        51,   Davis/Bowman   17.440 
 5. Jay Drake,          20s,  Stewart        17.477 
 6. Michael Lewis,      40,   Western Speed  17.524 
 7. Tony Elliott,       62,   BWB            17.593 
 8. Aaron Pierce,       26p,  Pierce         17.696 
 9. Bobby Santos III,   98s,  Santos         17.739 
10. Bud Kaeding,        29,   BK             17.804 
11. Jason McCord,        4,   Contos         17.807 
12. Levi Jones,         2B,   2B Racing      17.885 
13. John Heydenreich,  126,   Pierce         18.071 
14. Cory Kruseman,      21,   Stewart        18.075 
15. Josh Ford,          73,   Ford           18.104 
16. Brad Armstrong,     99,   Armstrong      18.174 
17. Tom Hessert,        5H,   Hessert        18.205 
18. John Scott,         83,   Scott          18.264 
19. Brian Tyler,         6,   KMS            18.398 
20. Marc Jessup,        14J,  Jessup         18.831 
21. Derek Crasi,        16,   Castor         19.409 
22. Ryan Litt,          07,   Litt           19.424 
23. Gordon Rodgers,     94,   Rodgers        19.764 
24. Bret Sanderson,     66,   MJS            20.122 
25. Mat Neely,          17,   Neely          20.124

FIRST FEATURE: (77 laps) 1. Bobby East, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Eric Gordon, 4. Bobby Santos III, 5. Dave Steele, 6. Jason McCord, 7. Aaron Pierce, 8. Tony Elliott, 9. John Heydenreich, 10. Michael Lewis, 11. Tom Hessert, 12. Bud Kaeding, 13. Brian Tyler, 14. Marc Jessup, 15. Josh Ford, 16. Levi Jones, 17. Brad Armstrong, 18. Ryan Litt, 19. Derek Crasi, 20. John Scott, 21. Gordon Rodgers, 22. Bret Sanderson, 23. Mat Neely, 24. Cory Kruseman, 25. Jay Drake. 30:46.79

SECOND FEATURE: (77 laps – No Points) 1. Dave Steele, 2. Bobby East, 3. Brad Armstrong, 4. Bud Kaeding, 5. Jason McCord, 6. Tracy Hines, 7. Cory Kruseman, 8. Josh Ford, 9. Bobby Santos III, 10. Tony Elliott, 11. John Scott, 12. Tom Hessert, 13. Mat Neely, 14. Bret Sanderson, 15. Aaron Pierce, 16. Ryan Litt, 17. Michael Lewis, 18. Derek Crasi, 19. John Heydenreich, 20. Brian Tyler, 21. Gordon Rodgers, 22. Levi Jones, 23. Marc Jessup, 24. Eric Gordon. NT

**Drake flipped on the backstretch on lap 20 of the first feature.

FIRST FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-77 East.
SECOND FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-44 Armstrong, Laps 45-76 Santos, Lap 77 Steele.

Courtesy Music City Motorplex

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